Who is the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition?

Our mission is to reverse the trend of mass incarceration in Colorado. We are a coalition of nearly 7,000 individual members and over 100 faith and community organizations who have united to stop perpetual prison expansion in Colorado through policy and sentence reform.

Our chief areas of interest include drug policy reform, women in prison, racial injustice, the impact of incarceration on children and families, the problems associated with re-entry and stopping the practice of using private prisons in our state.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Lori Martin helps her daughter crush Oreo cookies in a plastic container, then pops open a can of Cream Soda."Are you going to put it in there?" Joscelyn Martin, 6, asks her mom incredulously."Yeah," Martin answers. "It's how you make cake."At first glance, it seems like a pretty normal interaction. But, in reality, it's a unique bonding moment for the mother who is serving 26 years in prison and the daughter who flies from Oregon every three months to see her.Inside the walls of the Denver Women's Correctional Facility, children like Joscelyn make overnight visits to their mothers, playing "hot potato" with stuffed blocks, making "cake" from ingredients available in the prison commissary and reading bedtime stories."It's the routine stuff I don't normally get to do," says Martin, 34. "It makes me feel a part of it."As the population of female inmates in the nation's prisons skyrockets, the children left behind are starting to play a more pivotal role in rehabilitation and re-entry programs at prisons across the country.The Denver Post